Light

Index of Refraction

Definition

The index of refraction is a measure of how much light slows down when it passes through a medium. It quantifies the bending or change in direction that occurs as light travels from one medium to another.

Analogy

Imagine you are riding a bike and suddenly enter a muddy field. As you ride through the mud, your speed decreases, causing you to bend or change your path slightly. The index of refraction is like the mud, slowing down and bending the light as it moves through different materials.

Related terms

Snell's Law: This law describes how light bends when it passes from one medium to another, based on their respective indices of refraction.

Total Internal Reflection: This phenomenon occurs when light traveling in a high-index medium encounters an interface with a lower-index medium at an angle greater than the critical angle, causing all the light to reflect back into the higher-index medium.

Dispersion: Dispersion refers to the separation of white light into its component colors (rainbow) when passing through a prism or other transparent materials due to differences in refractive indices for different wavelengths.